Recently I came up with a fantastic way to describe how I deal with change to my husband. I am like an old GPS unit. Have you used one of those? The really cool ones that freeze up when you make a wrong turn (or don't turn when you should)? Not only does ours freeze up, but it slowly and with an awesome monotone says, "Recalculating....Recalculating...Recalculating." It's totally me.
When my plans get changed (aka: life happens), I always have a recalculating moment. Sometimes it's short and I'm off on my way with my newly acquired plans, but other times it takes just a "smidge" longer.
This is one of the biggest reasons I can't believe I'm homeschooling today. It was completely and totally not in my plans. I was counting down the years until my youngest was in kindergarten (I actually figured out which year while I was pregnant with him, it would have been 2014) when I was going to finish my degree and get a job. I was going to find something I could be passionate about, something I loved where I could make a difference. You know, I'm laughing right now because that is exactly what I'm doing today...and it's not even close to what I thought would give me those feelings.
Somewhere around 2 to 3 years ago I was reading a magazine (for the life of me I can't remember exactly which one it was now, but that's not the important part) and in that elusive magazine was an article (or ad) about Bakerella. Have you heard of her? She's pretty awesome. Her cake pops are adorable and so are her posts. I quickly bacame an avid reader and while on her blog one day, I read about another blogger who'd named herself the Pioneer Woman. Huh, I thought, interesting name, who's that? So, I clicked myself over to PW's blog and took a look around.
Okay, I'll confess, I didn't do too much looking around that first day. I looked at her blog with all her tabs and information and I thought something along the lines of, "Holy Cow!" And then I closed down the internet and moved on to other things. But, another day, when I was feeling a little braver (remember, new things take a little getting used to...yes, I know I can be silly), I got back on and started to look over her site. Did you know PW has a homeschooling section? It's fantastic! I've never met Heather (a contributer) but I love her anyway. She's been instrumental in my homeschooling story.
Looking through posts one day I came across one by Heather where she talks about a book she loves called The Well-Trained Mind (which teaches how to provide a classical education at home) and as I am a lover of books myself, I decided to see if my library had it and they did. Yipeee! If you've never happened across it before, it's GIGANTIC! Sort of overwhelmingly large, but thankfully easily broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks.
The first section shows you how to homeschool kindergarten through 4th grades. The second is 5th through 8th grades and the third is, you guessed it, 9th through 12th grades. I skipped right over those sections the first time I checked it out (yes, I did just say first time) and only read the fourth and last section which is all about homeschooling and why you might want to (or not want to).
After I finished reading it, I returned the book and that was it. Pretty much. I didn't read any other books on homeschooling, I didn't really get on PW's blog much at all (not like my current daily stalking...shoot, did I type that out loud?) and the thought of ME homeschooling never crossed my mind. It was interesting, sure, but SO not a part of my plans.
Stay tuned for part 2 to see how masterfully my life and plans were changed a little recalculation at a time.
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